Tech changes present whole new arena at NBI

By Michael Persson PBN Staff Writer

In speaking about his company’s four-year growth spurt, Narragansett Bay Insurance Co. CEO Todd Hart compares the advancement to that of a child. “From infancy to adolescence, we can look a little gawky.”

Tech changes present whole new arena at NBI

In speaking about his company’s four-year growth spurt, Narragansett Bay Insurance Co. CEO Todd Hart compares the advancement to that of a child. “From infancy to adolescence, we can look a little gawky.”

According to Hart, the company, which operates in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, is very much in that transitional phase not just in its own metamorphosis, but as a player in an altogether restructured industry.

Since 2008, and in the wake of hurricanes Wilma and Katrina, the nationwide insurance providers have either folded or broken apart. Filling the void are companies such as NBI, which are more precise in evaluating risk, more discerning about the kinds of policyholders they want as customers and more specific in the kinds of products they offer in the marketplace.

NBI’s growth has been significant.

In 2008, its gross written premiums, or sales, amounted to less than $30 million; by the close of 2012 they will hover around $180 million.

“We’re looking at the world differently,” said Hart, who took over as CEO in June. “Through technological advances to catastrophe models, we can spider crawl an area giving a value of exposure [risk] equaling $100.”

This pinpointing represents a new way of doing business. “We talk about being the Billy Beane of insurance,” making reference to the Oakland A’s general manager who was profiled in the best-selling book “Moneyball” for his use of new models of statistical analysis to find talent that was undervalued.

Get the most up-to-date data on the Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts business community from the PBN List Center. Download and purchase PBN Lists as well as the complete Book of Lists in Excel format.